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Published Thursday, June 09, 2005 by seanlmccarthy | E-mail this post

GLOBE, DO THE MATH: Finally got around to reading today's Boston Globe, and something about this page 1 story makes no sense.

Surveyed scientists admit misconduct(By Gareth Cook, Globe Staff)
A third of American biomedical scientists have engaged in questionable research practices, according to survey results released yesterday that raise questions about the integrity of the nation's multibillion-dollar quest to undersand the human body and cure diseases.

The story then goes on to describe the survey, which had scientists anonymously confess to any of 33 actions. Problem is, mad scientists aren't necessarily going to limit themselves to one fault. The actions overlap and allow multiple answers. And yet -- the survey, and the Globe both do the seemingly easy thing of adding up the responses, giving them and you the impression that 33 percent of scientists had done wrong.

Percentage of federally funded US scientists who...

Yeah. Don't think so.